doctor

a person who has been awarded a higher academic degree in any field of knowledge

3.

(mainly US & Canadian) a person licensed to practise dentistry or veterinary medicine

4.

(often capital) Also called Doctor of the Church. a title given to any of several of the leading Fathers or theologians in the history of the Christian Church down to the late Middle Ages whose teachings have greatly influenced orthodox Christian thought

5.

(angling) any of various gaudy artificial flies

6.

(informal) a person who mends or repairs things

7.

(slang) a cook on a ship or at a camp

8.

(archaic) a man, esp a teacher, of learning

9.

a device used for local repair of electroplated surfaces, consisting of an anode of the plating material embedded in an absorbent material containing the solution

10.

(in a paper-making machine) a blade that is set to scrape the roller in order to regulate the thickness of pulp or ink on it

11.

a cool sea breeze blowing in some countries: the Cape doctor

12.

(Austral, slang) go for the doctor, to make a great effort or move very fast, esp in a horse race

13.

what the doctor ordered, something needed or desired

verb

14.

(transitive)

to give medical treatment to

to prescribe for (a disease or disorder)

15.

(intransitive) (informal) to practise medicine: he doctored in Easter Island for six years

16.

(transitive) to repair or mend, esp in a makeshift manner

17.

(transitive) to make different in order to deceive, tamper with, falsify, or adulterate

doctor

n.

c.1300, "Church father," from Old French doctour, from Medieval Latin doctor "religious teacher, adviser, scholar," in classical Latin "teacher," agent noun from docere "to show, teach, cause to know," originally "make to appear right," causative of decere "be seemly, fitting" (see decent). Meaning "holder of highest degree in university" is first found late 14c.; as is that of "medical professional" (replacing native leech (n.2)), though this was not common till late 16c. The transitional stage is exemplified in Chaucer's Doctor of phesike (Latin physica came to be used extensively in Medieval Latin for medicina).

Similar usage of the equivalent of doctor is colloquial in most European languages: cf. Italian dottore, French docteur, German doktor, Lithuanian daktaras, though these are typically not the main word in those languages for a medical healer. For similar evolution, cf. Sanskrit vaidya- "medical doctor," literally "one versed in science." German Arzt, Dutch arts are from Late Latin archiater, from Greek arkhiatros "chief healer," hence "court physician." French médecin is a back-formation from médicine, replacing Old French miege, from Latin medicus.

The Dictionary of American Slang, Fourth Edition by Barbara Ann Kipfer, PhD. and Robert L. Chapman, Ph.D.Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.Cite This Source

doctorless in the Bible

(Luke 2:46; 5:17; Acts 5:34), a teacher. The Jewish doctors taught and disputed in synagogues, or wherever they could find an audience. Their disciples were allowed to propose to them questions. They assumed the office without any appointment to it. The doctors of the law were principally of the sect of the Pharisees. Schools were established after the destruction of Jerusalem at Babylon and Tiberias, in which academical degrees were conferred on those who passed a certain examination. Those of the school of Tiberias were called by the title "rabbi," and those of Babylon by that of "master."